Now that you are registered with the Corporate Affairs
Commission, there are records that you must keep and things to do so as to
comply with the law and put proper structure to your entity.

Points 1 to 4 highlights the records that you must keep and
how to go about it, while points 5 and 6 explains the things you have to do in
compliance with the law.

1.The
law mandates that you keep the records of your entity’s income and
expenditures, sources of income, and records of your entity’s assets and
liabilities.

The easy way to go about these is to purchase
standard notebooks for each purpose or have them recorded in a single book.

In this age of information technology, the
dynamics of storing information are changing, so you may have your soft copies stored
on an e-storage device so as to complement the hard copies.

2.You
must purchase standard notebook to record the minutes of your entity’s meetings.

There is no hard and fast rule about
recording your meetings.

However, a standard Minutes of Meeting
should contain:

a.Date of meeting

b.Venue

c.Members in attendance

d.Topics for discussion and summary of
deliberations on each topic.

e.Time meeting started and time meeting ended.

3.Purchase
standard notebook to record the details of your members.

The records of each member should include
their names, address, date on which each person became a member, date on which
the person ceased to be a member (i.e. where the person has ceased to be a
member).

You may decide to keep your Members
Register at your registered office or in some other place where you believe it
will be safely kept.

4.Purchase
standard notebook to record the details of your trustees.

Like the members register, your trustees
register should include trustees’ names, address, date on which each person was
appointed as a trustee and date on which the person ceased to be a trustee
(i.e. where the person has ceased to be a trustee).

5.Your
entity must prepare and submit to the Corporate Affairs Commission an annual
report (also known as “annual returns”) which will contain the following
details:

a.The name of your entity

b.Your gross income and expenditure

c.The names, addresses and occupations of the
trustees

d.The names, addresses, occupations and position
of members of the governing council (also known as executives).

e.Sources of income, bankers, bank and cash
balance of your entity.

f.Details of any land held by your entity during
the year of report

g.Any changes in the constitution of your entity
during the year

Your annual return must be filed
between 30th June and 31st December every year (except the year in which your
entity was registered),

6.Finally,
your organization must prepare audited account every year and submit to the CAC
alongside your annual report.

Keeping your annual returns up to date
with the Corporate Affairs Commission is about your most important obligation
as soon as you register your entity, and considering the technical nature of
the task, it is important that you train your secretary to handle it,
otherwise, you should retain the services of a law firm to help you out.

I am the
Founder of LAW ACCENT; a fast growing consultancy firm that teaches elementary
principles of law to the public. I am also the founding partner of ATTORNEYS’
HAVEN (a Law Practice Firm). I started my career at FALANA & FALANA’S
CHAMBERS where I had a successful stint which saw me rise through the ranks
within a very short time to become the Deputy Head of Property Department, a
position I held until my eventful resignation in December 2015 to focus more on
spreading the knowledge of law to the public.

In the
course of serving under Falana's Chambers, I embraced the view that “LAW is
made for the public (and not for Lawyers), so every person must have a basic
understanding of LAW as it applies to him/her”, it was upon that understanding
that LAW ACCENT was initiated to spread the knowledge of Law to the public.
Over the years, I have become extremely passionate about teaching Law to the
public in a way that has never been done before in Nigeria; I coordinate
training for grassroots people on their rights and duties under Nigerian Laws;
and I also host business advisory training for business people.

I initiated
a yearly series called PEOPLE’S PARLIAMENT in 2014 to bring LAW to the level of
grassroots people. Through the People’s Parliament, many people have been made
to understand their rights and duties under the Nigerian Laws, and they have
also been trained on how to hold the government accountable for its policies.

I am the
author of the blog www.eyitayoogunyemi.blogspot.com which is a blog space
dedicated to passing in the most ordinary language the knowledge of law to the
public.

I am
committed to building a knowledge based Nigeria, and this commitment has
inspired me to organize mentoring programs for Nigerian youths (tertiary
institution students in particular) on the subject of discovering what to live
for and how to go about it.

I look
forward to ways I can be of assistance to people in their daily endeavours and
my social media profiles are as follows: